


Need to Know

by sottovocexo



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Endgame, F/M, Hopeful Ending, Post-Endgame, Sousy, Timequake, daisy x daniel, daisy x sousa, daniel x daisy, dousy, quakersquares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:20:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25815697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sottovocexo/pseuds/sottovocexo
Summary: Ending AU: Imagining that when the team restores the original timeline, everyone who was displaced by the Chronicoms' actions returns to their own timelines without memories. Sousa is zapped back to 1955 and Daisy goes back in time to see him. It's eerily similar to the first time they met. But a lot has changed for her since then.
Relationships: Skye | Daisy Johnson/Daniel Sousa
Comments: 6
Kudos: 110





	Need to Know

_"Who the hell are you?"_

_"Who I am is on a need-to-know basis."_

_"I need to know."_

She caught sight of him in the hall. Daniel was walking alongside an agent, back in his unfashionable suit (well, she'd gotten used to it, she had to admit). She stared at him like she stared at him in the sleeping chamber during that fateful time loop: she'd lost him and laid eyes on him again. It was a sight that took her aback. Before the wrong person could spot her, though, she ducked into his office. It was almost time for a visit from the CIA.

That morning, Jemma had loaned her a different era-appropriate outfit, not quite the one she'd had on in the '50s, but one that worked nonetheless. This was more to her liking, anyway. It was more her: tapered trousers and a black turtleneck. Comfy, practical, but not entirely out of place.

So much had changed since their final mission. Since they returned to their timelines: the team and the ripples. When they completed the mission, Daniel was gone, without so much of a goodbye. Like he'd been zapped into time and space, leaving Daisy with a list of moments she needed to steal with him. She needed him back.

In his office, she had to laugh. She had no idea what was coming when she slipped him that fake ID and clocked him as unsuspecting, yet dependable. She'd had him pegged as a square (and she was right). Eyeing his many medals and commendations, she'd thought he was probably a Boy Scout (right again). She also knew by his pedigree that he was smart, strategic. She knew he was highly trained. And she was right about all that, too. But she didn't know how helpful he'd be. How easygoing. How principled.

And like clockwork, there he was, disarming again as he walked through the door and started stuttering upon seeing her picking up the memorabilia behind his desk. "Who are you?" he asked, and it reminded her of the time loops, of his reliable reactions each and every time. She could always count on him.

She smiled. Not like the knowing, coy smirk in their first meeting. A genuine smile, baring her teeth and her heart and her happiness at seeing him again. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," she said.

Daniel pulled a face. "Try me," he said firmly, his eyes narrowed.

She stepped closer. And smirked. "Well...I don't exist and we never met."

He practically rolled his eyes at that, then turning to scout the hallway. Daisy glanced out the door, too, but it was empty, leaving the two of them totally alone. When he looked back at her, their eyes locked, he smiled. A long-forgotten memory or a new dream? Daisy wondered.

"I think I've got the time to hear this out," he said, moving toward his desk, laying his cane aside. "I've got to say, no one's ever tried this schtick before."

When the team saved him and Coulson finally revealed the full truth--not sparing a single detail about body-snatching robots and the race against time--Daniel had said, "Why didn't you lead with that?" So Daisy figured it was worth a shot.

"Actually, _I've_ tried this before, just not in this timeline," Daisy said. "I posed as a CIA agent to jailbreak my colleagues you'd arrested at this very base." Spying Daniel's stunned expression, Daisy smirked and stepped even closer. "You see, we were trying to stop an evil alien race from taking over the world. And you helped us. We saved the world together."

Daniel stumbled back and took a seat at his desk. "You're pulling my leg?"

Daisy smiled. "You seem like a guy who values honesty."

He glanced up and down. "And you? We've really met before?"

"Frankly, I'm a little insulted you don't remember me," she said, taking the seat across from him.

He leaned forward on his desk, hands clasped, a smile playing on his lips. She had to tear her eyes away. And he noticed. Daniel may not have been remembering, but he was starting to take the hint. "And you've come back because...?"

"Because I've asked you to come with me before, and you have. Because I've asked you for help dozens of times, and you're always there. Because there's something I need, and I need to know how you'll respond."

He contemplated her seriously. He had the look on his face he'd get when trying to crack a problem. She'd seen it in countless loops. Luckily, he was always quick to come up with an answer.

"Well, what do you need?" he asked.

 _That_. She needed him to say that. She needed him to come back if it was the same Daniel. If he was still the same Daniel before everything they went through, then she knew she could happily take him back to the life the team was building after their mission.

"You," she said simply with a smile on her face, waiting for him to make his next move.


End file.
